Cucumber

Annual or perennial, monoecious or dioecious, herbs with climbing or prostrate stems. Leaves simple. Tendrils simple, simple at each node (except C. humifructus which has 2-8 at each node). Male flowers solitary or in few-flowered fascicles; female flowers solitary. Disk obvious, free from the receptacle-tube. Ovary smooth or bearing setae, spines or tubercles. Stamens 3, two 2-thecous, one 1-thecous.

Annual prostrate or climbing herb. Stems up to 5 m long, covered in bristly hairs. Leaves broadly ovate or subpentagonal in outline, more or less shallowly (3-)5-lobed, more or less densely bristly hairy, particularly on the veins below; margin with small sinuate teeth; petiole 2-11.5 cm long, covered in bristly hairs. Flowers unisexual, both sexes on the same plant, solitary or in 2-10-flowered clusters, yellow or pale orange, up to 2.5 cm in diameter. Fruits oblong-cylindric, up to 13 cm long, covered with stout fleshy spines, grey-green to orange yellow, often mottled, turning bright orange-red when ripe, edible.

Widespread in tropical Africa

Horned melon (Cucumis metuliferus)

Cucumis is a genus of twining, tendril-bearing plants in the family Cucurbitaceae which includes the cucumber (Cucumis sativus), muskmelons (Cucumis melo, including cantaloupe and honeydew), the horned melon (Cucumis metuliferus), and the West Indian gherkin (Cucumis anguria).

30 species occur in Africa, and 25 occur in India, Southeast Asia, and Australia. However, Cucumis myriocarpus was introduced to Australia from Sub-Saharan Africa, and is regarded as an invasive species.